The sun can be a nuisance to members of a flight crew seated in the flight deck of an aircraft during daytime flight operations. Sunlight entering the flight deck of the aircraft can flood the flight deck with bright light leaving the flight crew unable read displays and/or instruments. At night, illumination from instruments, readouts, and display screens can reflect off of the windshield and obstruct or obscure the flight crew's view through the windshield.
While there are devices available to block sunlight from entering the flight deck, such devices often provide less blockage than is desired. For example, one device that is commonly used to inhibit sunlight from entering the flight deck is a window shade. The window shade is commonly mounted vertically to a pillar adjacent a flight deck window pane and is configured to be pulled/unrolled so that it extends to a second pillar on the opposite side of the pane. Often, the contours of the window shade do not precisely match the contours of the window pane, leaving regions of the flight deck window unobstructed which, in turn, permits sunlight to enter the flight deck. Similarly, for nighttime operations, there are devices that are available to minimize reflections. For example, one device that is commonly used to inhibit reflections is a glare shield. This is a hood that protrudes over the instruments and that obstructs light from the instruments from reaching the windshield. The dimensions of the glare shield are often smaller than the dimensions of the instruments it is intended to shield and so there is frequently some light leakage.
It is desirable to provide a flight deck arrangement that addresses the above described situation. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent summary and detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.